Error message: Index Value Equals Zero

[Kyna]

For nearly a year, I have successfully used Fixity v.5.  I recently downloaded v1.2, but have been encountering a new problem.  I'm hoping to confirm the issue and/or resolve it.

 

For some context, I kept things simple and did not attempt to import project information from my previous version of fixity; I simply set up a new project.  When Fixity ran, it recognized the files as new files (see below), but the report contained this message for every file: Error: Index Value Equals Zero: New File: [\\server\...file pathway...etc. etc.].

 

Fixity report

Project name     Test_Project

Algorithm used sha256

Date      2018-10-05

Time Elapsed     0 hrs 0 min 30 seconds

Total Files            45

Confirmed Files 0

Moved or Renamed Files              0

New Files             45

Changed Files    0

Removed Files   0

Error: Index Value Equals Zero    45

 

When I ran the project a second time, Fixity indicated that the files had changed and the error message switched to: Error: Index Value Equals Zero: Changed File:\\LIBS-ASC\ASC_Preservation\University_Records\2018-048_BoT_PresidentialSearchCommittee\Presidential_Search_2018\tagmanifest-sha256.txt changed to \\LIBS-ASC\ASC_Preservation\University_Records\2018-048_BoT_PresidentialSearchCommittee\Presidential_Search_2018\data\President Leadership Statement final.pdf etc. etc.  Meanwhile, the only file that was confirmed still contained the original error message: Error: Index Value Equals Zero: Confirmed File: \\LIBS-ASC\ASC_Preservation\University_Records\2018-048_BoT_PresidentialSearchCommittee\Presidential_Search_2018\tagmanifest-sha256.txt.  

 

Fixity report

Project name     Test_Project

Algorithm used sha256

Date      2018-10-05

Time Elapsed     0 hrs 0 min 28 seconds

Total Files            45

Confirmed Files 1

Moved or Renamed Files              0

New Files             0

Changed Files    44

Removed Files   0

Error: Index Value Equals Zero    45  

 

A colleague and I set up test projects and both ran into this error.  

Is this the known issue that certain CIFS network implementations may experience errors in Fixity’s reporting?  Is there a way to resolve this error?  Any suggestion or guidance about what I am overlooking would be appreciated!

[Pamela Vizner]

Hi Kyna,

On Windows machines, the "Index Value Equals Zero" status results from having long file paths. I suggest that you perform a test with shorter paths and see how it goes. If this doesn't help let me know so we can help you figure it out.

Best,

Pamela

[Kyna]

Pamela, thanks so much for your reply.

I've been running some random tests and you're absolutely right that a short file path does fine--I get no error message on these.

Naturally I wanted to get a sense of the limits of the file path issue.  I ran Fixity on two similarly-sized file paths and was surprised to get the error on one but not on the other (see attached).  Should I extrapolate from this test that Fixity recognizes the longest file path in a given folder and issues an error to everything in the whole folder?  

Admittedly, these are imperfect tests, but for the report that I got the error on, the longest pathway was only 153 characters.  Are their any work-arounds?  As you may imagine, we will not be able to shorten our current filing structure and file names.

Again, thanks for any suggestions!

kyna

[Ikrananka]

First time user here and I too have run into this issue (Error: Index Value Equals Zero 18).  I have been testing on a small number of files and the path is really not that long.  For example, the longest in one project is only 81 characters long - well within the norm, and yet I still run into the error.  In my case, the path is a network path - could this be contributing to the error?

So, at present, I am unable to use Fixity at all.

[Kyna]

I, too, was not able to resolve this error message in Fixity v 1.2, but I've had success with both fixity v .5 and v 1.0.  If you haven't tried to do so, it may be worth trying one of these earlier versions.

[ch...@weareavp.com]

Hello, the issue of getting an index value that equals 0 can result from a couple of issues. One is the long filepath issue that Pamela previously referenced. The other is called out on page 4 of the user guide under the "Known Issues" section, stating: Certain CIFS network implementations may experience errors in Fixity’s reporting. Networks utilizing CIFS will generate new inodes upon each connection to the network, throwing off Fixity’s logic and causing unreliable reporting.

This issue is outside of the control of the Fixity application and is based on how the implementation handles inodes. One possible future update to circumnavigate this issue would be to disable the inode feature in Fixity but this would also limit the reporting functionality and take away the moved/renamed reporting feature Is this an option you would be interested in?

Thanks for the feedback!

Chris